Declaration for Life in the Forest - Porto de Moz and Prainha, Amazon

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Publication - 31 October, 2003

We, the community organisations and entities from the Porto de Moz Region and Prainha, Para State, and civil society organisations and other entities concerned about increasing violence against forest people, and the continuous assault on Amazon forest resources, call on the public to support our struggle for peace, for social justice, and for the preservation of our environmental patrimony in the region between the Xingu and Curuá-Una Rivers, North of the Transamazonica Highway and the Amazon River, in Para.

Executive summary: Here thousands Brazilian men and women, Extractivist populations and ribeirinhos (river people) live in more than a hundred communities. They live from and in the forest and have established a century-long respectful and sustainable relationship with it.This region has literally been invaded by large economically driven groups, led by an aggressive logging sector. These groups occupy public and community lands. They, primarily the logging sector, exploit illegally and in a predatory manner, and generate intense conflicts with local populations. There are many cases of community people being forced to abandon their land and their belongings, from fear of the loggers’ threats and from fear of losing their lives. There are several cases of ribeirinhos being co-opted by the loggers, who forced them to destroy the environmental patrimony, due to their absolute lack of alternatives – and without sharing the profits of these activities that jeopardize the futures of the communities.